Herve Renard Reacts To His Masterclass As Saudi Arabia Shocks Argentina In Group C World Cup Opener.

Herve Renard helped oversee one of the biggest World Cup shocks, as his team Saudi Arabia produced their finest football result in history with a shock 2-1 win over the reigning Copa America champions Argentina at Lusail Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.

The Saudi Arabian team led by Herve Renard outworked, outfought and ultimately outscored Lionel Scaloni's side, who were on a 36-game unbeaten run.

Argentina are one of the favourites to win the World Cup in Lionel Messi's last appearance and although the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner scored the opener from the penalty spot just 10 mins into the game, but Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari struck to turn the tie around in the second-half and win it for Saudi Arabia in Group C opener.

The win for Saudi Arabia won their first-ever opening game to a FIFA World Cup, and won only their fourth match in the tournament's history.

It was a delight in front of the 88,000 fans in attendance in a historic match for the entire Arab football in a tournament organized by an Arab.

Renard who was delighted with the victory says that he does not want to get carried away with Group C fixtures against Poland and Mexico still to come.

"All the stars in the sky were aligned for us," The 54-year-old Frenchman told reporters.

"This is football, sometimes something completely crazy can happen.”

"We can just have a good celebration during 20 minutes and that's all, there are still two more games.

"When you come to the World Cup, you need to believe in yourself, anything can happen in football."

He added: "Argentina are a fantastic team. They came here without losing in 36 games, they’re South American champions and they’ve an amazing player, but this is football. 

"Sometimes the opposition does not have the best motivation, it's normal, it also happened to us when playing lower teams.

"Some people don't understand but you can imagine that Lionel Messi playing against Saudi Arabia. He will say they’ve to start well and win, but you know the motivation is not like it would be when playing Brazil. This is normal.

"We have made history for Saudi football and it will stay forever. That’s most important, but we also need to look forward because we still have two very difficult games to play."

Saudi Arabia who are too of Group C with three points, now need a win against Poland or Mexico who drew go

Lionel Scaloni’s side will now hope to beat Poland and Mexico in their next two matches to stand any chance of making the 2022 World Cup round of 16.

A brief history of the Coach of the tournament so far according to Goal;

Hervé Renard had managed a few clubs throughout Europe and Asia, before being handed the Zambia job. He led them to the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations for the first time in 14 years, before leaving his post and taking charge of Angola, where he quit after just seven months in charge.

In 2011 he returned to Zambia and led the nation to its first-ever AFCON title in 2012, before being knocked out in the group stage a year later and then being released in October 2013 in preparation for a role at French club Sochaux.

After a short spell with Sochaux, Renard left when they were relegated in April 2014 and was appointed Ivory Coast manager in May that same year.

In 2015, Renard became the first manager to win AFCON with two different nations, lifting the trophy with the Ivory Coast.

A disappointing spell at French club Lille followed, seeing him leave after just 13 games, and Renard then took charge of another African side, this time Morocco. He reached the 2018 World Cup with Morocco, their first time in the competition since 1998. In 2019 he oversaw Morocco's shock round of 16 exit from AFCON, resigning just days after on July 15.

He then took over Saudi Arabia, taking them to the 2022 World Cup and in the process becoming the foreign manager with the most victories for the nation (18).